A further welcome back for the second part of our Armrest Review of The Dark Knight, the middle entry in Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight Trilogy." As before, I’m joined by The Popcorn Prince, who’s been watching movies for almost as long as I have. He’s a big Batman fan, so I’m pleased to have him by my side for the next installment of this series.
Popcorn Prince: You haven’t said much in the past few minutes.
Cinema King: Sorry, I just get so entranced by this movie. And besides, shut up – it’s the big “Why so serious?” speech.
PoP: This is a great moment until you realize he’s probably just lying, then you realize how much more sick this guy really is.
CK: You almost feel sorry for him until the point you just mentioned. I remember the body bag thing creeped out a lot of people.
PoP: Yeah, it’s ooky, but I’m kind of glad they didn’t cut it out.
CK: Zimmer said that they couldn’t let Ledger’s death compromise the performance, which sounds a little cold but makes perfect sense – Heath Ledger gave this awesome performance, and it’d be wrong for the filmmakers to pull back on what he did.
PoP: On a lighter note, Morgan Freeman is killing the comic relief here.
CK: He’s the master of this whole “blissful ignorance” charade... I just realized something: is everyone in this movie lying about something?
PoP: Except Rachel. She was trying to tell Bruce the truth, but then Alfred burns the note.
CK: Yeah, and The Joker’s being honest about anarchy in a way, but then he lies about not having a plan. I don’t know, let me think about this one.
PoP: Go for it. Batman’s got a big action sequence where he has to beat the crud out of Mister Lau.
CK: Which is beautifully choreographed, by the way. It’s kind of restrained, but it’s very real-world. In a comic book world, Batman could clear a room in a second, but realistically it takes a little effort.
PoP: I love how the Chinese cop has no idea what Batman is or what to do about him.
CK: Would you? Guy straight up looks like the devil. Ah, that little smirk from Gordon when Lau shows up literally on his doorstep.
PoP: We gushed over Oldman last time, but he’s even better in this one, probably just by virtue of having more to do. Is that James Newton Howard on the Dent theme?
CK: Yeah, it’s not bombastic enough to be Zimmer, but it’s a good way of showing us – letting us hear? – that Gotham has a smoother defender.
PoP: Oh jeez. I forgot about the dead Bat-pretender hitting the window. Poor Mayor Guyliner.
CK: Perfect example of how this film “works” – you know it’s coming, but it still gets you.
PoP: Ugh, I feel so bad for Brian Douglas. Just a guy trying to do the right thing and then this horrible clown kills him on video just to send a message.
CK: Yeah, this is not a Joker who’s going to poison fish or vandalize a museum. This guy is a stone cold terrorist, which helps the Bush-era analogy I think Nolan is working on. And it’s painful to hear Bruce call Harvey “the face of Gotham’s bright future.”
PoP: Clever. But why did Bruce ditch his champagne? I know he can afford to, but dang.
CK: It’s part of being Batman. The playboy billionaire has to drink a lot, but Batman can’t afford to. It’s his mask. He was drinking club soda on the yacht earlier.
PoP: Gotcha. You mentioned editing, and this “Joker card” scene is a perfect example of that. The cuts between places where The Joker is about to strike, coupled with the music, made me really anxious.
CK: And Gordon’s dawning realization gives me chills. He knows he’s too late to save the Commissioner.
PoP: I thought he was the commissioner.
CK: Not yet. And this “Where is Harvey Dent?” scene I remember being the first – and only – clip I saw out of context about a week before the movie came out, and I was smiling for hours because it finally proved to me that the kid from A Knight’s Tale was going to kill as the Joker.
PoP: Come on, after 10 Things and Brokeback Mountain, you doubted Heath Ledger?
CK: I’ve hugged the cactus for my mistake, I know. It’ll never happen again.
PoP: If you say so. Speaking of things happening again, you got hypnotized.
CK: It’s this movie! I can’t review it impartially because I’d rather be watching it. And the penthouse scene is the first meeting between Batman and Joker, which makes it all the more exuberantly entertaining.
PoP: So Alfred introduces the theme of escalation, which Gordon previewed at the end of Batman Begins. And he tells Batman, “Look, this guy is not like the others.”
CK: Poor Batman. He doesn’t realize that he needs to step up his game, too. He’s still focused on taking down the mob, and he thinks Joker’s just a nuisance. That’s classic Alfred, though; he tells Bruce what he needs to hear but knows he’s not going to listen, so he just snarks his way through until he gets to say, “I told you so.”
PoP: Which he does a lot in this movie. But did Bruce listen? Reese mentions the cell phone project, which ends up being how Batman catches Joker.
CK: Grant Morrison says that the best thing about Batman is that he thinks of everything. I imagine Bruce saw how successful Morgan Freeman’s prototype was and just greenlit the whole thing on a massive scale.
PoP: There’s more of people lying to each other; this time it’s Bruce covering up the “government telecommunications” project.
CK: Told you. I like how the funeral scene is funneled through Gordon; he’s on alert because, like us, he knows that Joker’s in the crowd somewhere but he can’t see him.
PoP: We can hear him, though, with that really smart soundtrack sneaking in. Did you think Gordon was really dead?
CK: Honestly, yeah. Even though a part of me was holding out for a resurrection, I was ready to be pissed that they killed him.
PoP: I figured that, too. I thought it was a way to establish that this Joker is a force to be reckoned with, that he can just tear through established canon and wipe out characters who are supposedly untouchable.
CK: That would have been a really ballsy move. I’m still not clear, though, whether Batman was in on the plan.
PoP: I’m going to say no, because Batman pushes Eric Roberts off a building. That’s not something you do if your only friend isn’t really dead.
CK: Not something you’d do, but that’s just a Tuesday night for Batman. It’s not lethal force, so it’s perfectly acceptable. He never seems surprised, but I just don’t know when they would have had time to work it out.
PoP: Yeah, now I’m actually not sure. It gives the film more time to spend with Bruce, though, since he’s the last guy fighting now.
CK: What about Harvey?
PoP: The man’s holding a press conference. He can’t go chasing down The Joker, so Bruce has to take it on all by himself.
CK: Or so he thinks. Harvey surprises even him, I think, because while Bruce trusted him to carry on Batman’s mission, he had no idea Harvey was so brave.
PoP: Yeah, whether or not Gordon and Batman worked something out, Bruce is genuinely shocked that Harvey just took the fall. And I like how Nolan doesn’t even let us suspect that Gordon is driving the SWAT van. I think it’s because the other cop talks so damn much.
CK: Looking back, it’s a classic comic book move that if there’s a man in a mask, chances are his identity is important. And I’ll warn you right now, I have so little to say about the big car chase action piece because it’s perfect. There’s no score to distract us, just car horns and collision noises as Joker makes his movie.
PoP: Yeah, I’m just gonna drink it in, too. This might be the best scene in the movie, but even though it goes on for a very long time it never feels like it. Like we’ve been saying, the direction and editing are critical.
CK: You’re right – this is the bar that Dark Knight Rises has to top as far as action scenes go.
PoP: That truck flipping is such an amazing stunt, but nothing beats Batman doing a 180 off the building for sheer fun.
CK: Yeah, the whole theater burst into applause the first time I saw it.
PoP: First time? You were just clapping now. And how pissed must Joker be to see Gordon’s still alive?
CK: I almost thought that was a plot hole, but it’s actually not. At this point, Joker is so obsessed with Batman as his mirror image, that the rest of the city is just collateral damage in his personal battle. But I like how the movie builds Gordon up, especially his relationship with his son; I think that’s why I knee-jerked on Gordon’s importance to The Joker, because Gordon is way more significant in this film than Pat Hingle was in the last four movies combined.
PoP: And he’s Gary Oldman.
CK: He’s Gary Freaking Oldman.
Stay tuned for the final installment of our Armrest Review of The Dark Knight, in just a few short hours!
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